More Wandsworth Council cheerleaders!

Yes, I would rather the council tax went up than this total chaos in the park.

If people are spending money around the park for the weekend they are just not spending it somewhere else - and specifically they could be giving some of that money to the owner of a dedicated track (as you are so interested in private enterprise).

What you don't seem to consider is that by having a jolly for one group of people just excludes another group. ie you have no social conscience.

For goodness sake stop moaning.

The park will be closed for a few days. So what.
Yes the council may make some money from the event but so will local businesses. The hotel on Queenstown road is full for the week as I am sure other hotels will be. All employing local residents. It also benefits you by keeping your council tax down.
I haven't checked but I will bet that local restaurants will have bookings as well and shock horror some shops may make some extra sales.

Local schools were given some tickets and residents living in certain roads bordering the park were offered free tickets, yes to make up for the inconvenience. (Ref Brightside magazine).
The council try and build the status of London and the borough by holding these events but there is always someone moaning because it happens in their backyard. Would you be happier pushing it out to Ealing or tower hamlets.

We have more park / common land in and bordering the borough than any other borough in London.
For a few weekends of the year, go and try them out.
Just stop moaning because you can't walk on a particular blade of grass.

I had the misfortune to visit the park this afternoon. Completely unbelievable, it is much, much worse than I could ever have imagined.

There are 10ft high crash barriers around the entire east and south sides of Carriage Drive (may be around the north and west sides too), which effectively prevent access to the park. There are articulated lorries, vans, cranes, etc all over the place. Workmen putting up more barriers with essentially no separation between their workspace and the public trying to get around the park.

The crash barriers seem to block entry to the main body of the park, except for a few crossing points. There are no signs as to where these crossing points might be and no information for park users as to what parts of the park are accessible.

A few stewards are directing all users of the park to the footpaths on Carriage Drive, the roadway itself is closed to everyone (well it is surrounded by crash barriers). So you have pedestrians, runners and cyclists all trying to use a footpath that is constricted by the crash barriers and a separate ring of crowd control barriers.

This is all about two weeks prior to the race, so you can imagine that the actual disruption in the park is going to be continuing for at least three weeks. I though four days was more than enough, but this is an absolute joke.

rooting4tooting I take your point about the track at Crystal Palace, but the reality is that they did, historically have races there. Although it may not seem so, the course they are using in Battersea Park is no wider. I also understand your point that there have been commercial activities in the park before. But this is on a totally different scale, this is more or less the whole park. Even when the funfair was there back in the 1970s is was a relatively small section and did not prevent access to the bulk of the park.

The exhibition hall at the "British Genius" site is actually a temporary building, which they take down on a regular basis (I presume because there is no planning permission to have it there permanently).

I was at the park yesterday building works for this event are taking place now.
You are only able to enter Albert bridge Rd or Chelsea Bridge Entrance because of the building works on the road around. This is the only road in the park which you are able to cycle on, which I like to do most evenings. Most people who live near the park cannot afford to take their family to his event.

I was going to be a supporter of this event as it is literally on my door step but as there are huge sections of the park that are already inaccessible (fencing, one way systems, lorries and cranes etc) while they set up more than two weeks beforehand I have changed my mind. The organisers don't seem to be paying enough to the council/park for the disruption and they must be making a huge amount of money as the only tickets left for either day are priced at over £50 pp! They should have kept more of the park open to all and set up free screens for those of us who do not want to spend a fortune trying to go. Ok rant over!

Battersea Park has always had a commercial arm and have corporate buildings for beanos, conventions etc and before that had the famous permanent funfair.
I think WBC should have given free perhaps 2000 tickets divied out by lottery. That is the shame.
As for the 4 days disruption, it does seem a bit strong to close the park 95% all day every day.
Having attended the festival of speed at Crystal Palace and the little disruption this caused to the park as a whole, the problem is the width and route of the track. This is a race, not a time trial, so width of the raceway is crucial for the safety of the participants.
I think this will be a historic event, but I for one would like a clear view of the profit loss for WBC on this one!

As a regular park user and very local resident I agree there are far too many events in the park which impact the users. And whilst we are on the topic, the gondola restaurant by the boating lake is really awful and a huge missed opportunity in my opinion.

[quote="LP73"]I am sure that the money Wandsworth Council make will go towards keeping our council tax low and being out back int the community.[/quote]

C'mon - they don't want to put anything back into the community. They just have an ideology of "let's cut everything to the bone" and "let's try to get the private sector to pay for everything".

So, what we end up with is a lot of privatisation in the Battersea Park (I'm sure we all remember the Council's promises when they tore down the adventure playground - "oh, we're going to add this and that, and these other things, and we're even thinking about a tree-top walkway". Well, the walkway is going to happen, but it's going to be a private enterprise, at £17 a pop, and the other things won't happen, because all the infrastructure needed for the walkway will block any other expansion).

Then there is the ridiculous amount of money they are getting a developer to spend on the Queenstown Circus roundabout (the price of getting planning permission). Surely they learnt from the previous cycle lanes installed here, that were installed at great expense, but that no one ever used.

And why can't they clean out a couple of drains in the park so that the paths don't flood?

I'm not be a spoilsport, there are three really clear indicators of that: one of my family members has won tickets to the event (this doesn't stop me believing that this is the wrong event in the wrong place), I have suggested a different venue, that actually has a racing track in place (and there must be 20 or more tracks around the country that would love this event), and I wouldn't really be that bothered about it either way if the general public still had access to the park (ie they should have built bridges over the track so that the rest of us can get in).

But, I only really have two points to make:

1 NappyValleyNet.com is wrong in send out an email telling everyone that "you can visit the park as normal during the course of the weekend" and should correct that mistake.

2 There are far too many of these events in the park, they are not one-offs, there is ongoing disruption due to one corporate event or another.

On a political/devolution theme all the London boroughs should essentially be scrapped and power handed over to the GLA. Or at least significant infrastructure like the roads, pools, sports facilities, schools, commons and parks.

(if you look at the agenda of the Council that's basically what they would like, building economies of scale with other boroughs and making a lot of politicians/civil servants redundant would save a lot of money)

Now you Wandsworth cheerleaders can carry on.

Lets all calm down and spread a little peace and love :-)

I agree that closing the park will inconvenience some people, and for some people that's a big deal.

I also agree that it'll be amazing to have proper motor racing on our doorstep.

Come on everyone, it's the weekend!!!

:-)

Here, here LP73.

As a family we cannot wait for the Formula E event. It's fantastic for us all living so close and I am sure will be a fantastic weekend for all that would like to be involved.

I am sure that the money Wandsworth Council make will go towards keeping our council tax low and being out back int the community.

So many large events happen North of the river so it's wonderful to have a share of something spectacular.

I think rather than sounding like Victor Meldew, get behind the event, support it, smile and have fun. Failing that you could always leave London for a few days holiday, rent your house out and make some money :D

Forgot to post this:

https://www.fixmystreet.com/reports/Wandsworth

What a stupid thing to write "struggle with change"!?

I'm not struggling with change, what I'm struggling to understand is that Wandsworth Council treat the park as a profit centre. There are far too many events in Battersea Park that restrict access or make it difficult to use in one way or another. A couple of weeks ago you had the Chelsea flower show, where the park is turned into a giant car park - coaches vans and cars zooming around all over the place and no one supervising them. An aside to that is that there is supposed to be a 12mph speed limit in the car parks, now they've taken out the speed humps and resurfaced them people think they're on the road and just drive around at 25-30+. I stopped someone the other day doing it - he said "Eh, what was I doing, 25, may be 30…" Yes, but the speed limit is 12. "Oh" he says.

This weekend there's a run in the park. These involve fencing off areas of the park, and again, because the track runs around the perimeter of the park, limiting people's access to most of the park because they cannot get across the track (for the weight of runners).

The Formula E race is not just four days, it's four days every June for the next five years, at least.

One of the most annoying things about these events is that they never clear up properly afterwards. So, months later you still see the detritus of the event scattered around the park.

And while the Council must be literally raking in millions for all these events, they cannot fix a couple of blocked drains in the park that regularly cause flooded paths - that I have been complaining about for a year! Or, the drains on Broughton Street for that matter.

So maybe I am struggling with change, a change in the behaviour of Wandsworth Council, so it can try to get the basic things right - like cleaning and unblocking drains - and think about how it can hold events without blocking access to the park.

I'm with you topmama. What a great opportunity for our local area to host such an event. I know some people struggle with change but surely you can cope without the park for four days?!!

[quote="topmama"]some people complain about anything! :lol:[/quote]

It is a public park, for the use of the public, not a money making enterprise to be exploited by Wandsworth Council so that they can make themselves look better (while avoiding doing the things they're put in office for).